The city of Rocky Mount and the Martin Luther King, Jr. Commission will honor Dr. King’s legacy through a series of events, including the 26th annual Unity Breakfast.

This year’s breakfast at the Dunn Center for the Performing Arts on the campus of N.C. Wesleyan College will feature Dr. Julianne Malveaux.

Malveaux has long been recognized as a labor economist, educator, noted author and colorful commentator.

Malveaux’s writing has appeared in USA Today, Black Issues in Higher Education, Ms. Magazine, Essence and the Progressive. She also wrote a weekly column from 1990 to 2003 that was featured in newspapers such as the Los Angeles Times, Charlotte Observer, New Orleans Tribune, Detroit Free Press and San Francisco Examiner.

Malveaux has also hosted several radio and television programs and appeared on networks, including CNN, BET, PBS, NBC, ABC, Fox News, MSNBC, CNBC, C-Span and more.

Malveaux is also a proponent of education, contributing to academic life since receiving her doctorate in economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1980. She

also obtained her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in economics at Boston College.

Malveaux served as the 15th president of Bennett College for Women in Greensboro. In the five years during her presidency, Bennett College received a 10-year reaffirmation of its accreditation, improved existing facilities and embarked on a $21 million capital improvements program, marking the first major campus construction in over 25 years.

Those who attend the annual event on Jan. 20, will get breakfast at 7 a.m.

The program begins at 8 a.m., and admission is free. Malveaux will focus on this year’s theme, “One Vision, Many Dreams.”